Matthew McConaughey Makes This Unhinged Recipe Every Sunday—We Had to Try It

Matthew McConaughey has proven to be a whiz in the kitchen. He knows how to upgrade everyday burgers (with onion soup mix, of course) and can pair together the perfect two-ingredient snack. And he has fun with it—always cooking something up with his wife, Camila Alves McConaughey. But those aren’t the only recipes the Texan makes on the regular. Luckily, he's happy to share his wild ways with the world, and his latest revelation has the internet in a tizzy.

Matthew McConaughey's Famous Tuna Salad Recipe

Recently, on the "2 Bears, 1 Cave" podcast with Bert Kreischer and Tom Segura, McConaughey shared the go-to tuna salad recipe he makes every Sunday and even dubbed himself the “tuna fish salad master maker.”

“It starts with the base,” he explained. “You get your good tuna. Next, you want to watch how much lemon and vinegar you add. Add the mayo mixed with some wasabi and then all the rest of the stuff: chopped red onions, dill pickle gherkins—I’ll finely chop the dill pickle gherkins—and crispy jalapeño  chips to give it a little bit of a crunch.” And as if that wasn’t enough, McConaughey likes to add some chopped apples and a touch of agave syrup for some sweetness, as well as some corn and frozen green peas.

The recipe has taken the internet by storm due to the unusual ingredients the actor calls for. So, naturally, we had to try it, too. Our resident chef Nicole McLaughlin took a chance on the tuna salad in her recent recreation, and the results were surprising. 

Not only did she write out the recipe herself (since McConaughey didn’t give us a written how-to) but she also caught that under the actor’s breath, he mentions adding just a little bit of Italian dressing. As she measures with her heart and gives it a final taste, McLaughlin calls the dish “delicious.”

“It was so good,” she later told me. “The wasabi really does make it. It has some [of the] usual suspects [in a tuna salad] that I knew I loved—like pickles, red onion, and mayo. Some of the surprising ingredients were my favorite because they added a variety of textures, like peas, fresh corn, and apple. I've been too boring in my tuna salad game...Until now.”

How to Make Matthew McConaughey's Tuna Salad

Thanks to McLaughlin, we have a written version of McConaughey’s somewhat unhinged (in the best way) tuna salad. The best part of this whole experiment is that you can add more (or fewer) ingredients to suit your taste.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise, plus more as desired
• 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons wasabi paste
• 2 teaspoons Italian dressing
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped dill pickles
• 1/3 cup crispy jalapeño chips
• 1/4 cup chopped apple
• 1/2 cup fresh corn kernels
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 10 ounces tuna packed in olive oil, drained

Directions:

1. Stir mayonnaise together with vinegar, lemon juice, wasabi, and Italian dressing in a medium bowl until combined. Add in onion, pickles, jalapeño chips, apple, corn, and peas, and stir. 
2. Fold in the tuna until well combined. Add more mayonnaise if desired.
3. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.